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Throughout his career, Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer has earned the reputation as a relentless backstabber. That began when he took the Tennessee head coaching job from Johnny Majors in the early 1990s, angling while Majors was recovering from heart surgery.

Later, Fulmer consistently attempted to undercut a procession of Tennessee coaches — Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley and Butch Jones — and also played grand maestro in the coup to unseat athletic director John Currie last year. For decades, Phillip Fulmer’s reputation has revolved around consistently and persistently operating to maximize the full glory, attention and financial benefit of Phillip Fulmer.

Someone get embattled Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt a Kevlar vest and tell him to watch his back. It only makes sense that Fulmer is going to cover up his own administrative failings to pull off one final machete through the spine and take over an utter disaster of his own creation.

If history is any guide, expect Fulmer to begin lining up to take over as the head coach in Tennessee in the next few weeks. Pruitt’s Vols dropped to 1-3 after getting hammered by Florida on Saturday, 34-3, and are almost assured to start 1-6 and won’t be favored until, likely, Nov. 2 against UAB.

Tennessee has no identity, no clue and no cohesion under Pruitt, who has looked overmatched from his opening press conference. There’s little empirical evidence in year two that will change, as many fans have flipped to that bizarre vortex where they are rooting for losses to expedite Pruitt’s departure. Tennessee has had recruiting success, but all those star rankings don’t guarantee guys play hard. And Tennessee is a program with no oxygen, relevant only by its weekly self-created disasters and Pruitt’s unfortunate misuse of historical references.

Tennessee’s last coaching change ended with the ouster of Currie and administrative upheaval that made many veteran SEC athletic officials debate as to whether Tennessee had ousted Auburn as the league’s most dysfunctional program.

There are still divisive factions running amok at Tennessee. Booster Charlie Anderson badly wanted Pruitt as the coach and didn’t think that Dan Mullen had won enough for the job, as the records dump of Tennessee’s athletic department from that time reads like a diary of dysfunction. Booster John “Thunder” Thornton wanted Fulmer back desperately as athletic director, as he like many at Tennessee are so wed to the past that it’s ruining the athletic department’s future.

New Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt, right, receives a personalized jersey from athletic director Phillip Fulmer during his introductory news conference Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Steve Megargee)
When big-money boosters are puppeteering athletic departments, it usually ends up working out much like, well, the Haslam family running an NFL team.

Tennessee’s last coaching change may appear seamless compared to what the university faces in the wake of Fulmer hiring Pruitt. Mind you, Currie had gone out and courted Mike Leach, who was likely to leave Washington State for the job. (This was after a public coup essentially ended Greg Schiano’s candidacy.) Fulmer also interviewed Mel Tucker, who is off to a strong start at Colorado.

Instead, they hired a coach that Mississippi State passed on, much because Fulmer’s world view remains trapped in 1990s football. Pruitt’s hire is an attempt to jam a VHS of his own glory days back on the school.

This current overmatched Tennessee staff is a curdling cesspool of Fulmer’s own creation. The final salvo of administrative malfeasance was letting Pruitt hire Jim Chaney from Georgia as offensive coordinator. Tennessee is years behind catching up to rivals like Georgia and Alabama, and attempting to play the same style on offense and eventually surpassing them is about as savvy a strategy as hiring Antonio Brown’s life coach. Pruitt made the classic mistake of so many Saban disciples, attempting to copy and paste The Process and expecting similar results.

To fire Pruitt and his staff would cost Tennessee north of $15 million, as Fulmer green-lighted three-year contracts for Chaney and defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley. We shouldn’t underestimate how broke the Vols are in the wake of cash deficits from season ticket issues and empty stadium seats, which are compounded by significant debts on facilities projects and pressures on annual revenues. To get a true start on a reboot, Tennessee would also have to fire Fulmer and hire a real athletic director – not one who wears coaching gear to work and gets NCAA wrist slaps for jumping into offensive line drills in practice.

Managing a hundred-million dollar budget takes savvy and experience, and Fulmer’s presence is a giddy delight to the rest of the SEC athletic directors. With Fulmer around, they know it’s highly unlikely that Tennessee will remove itself from the underachieving, sputtering punchline that it’s turned into. A non-threatening Tennessee is good news for the Floridas, Georgias and Alabamas, who all have one less game to worry about each season.

Self-awareness has never been Fulmer’s specialty, so he may have no idea that he’s the athletic director the others are hoping will stick around to suffocate an underachieving brand.

And he also likely has no idea that coaches and administrators around the league are taking bets on when he coronates himself hero to return to the sideline. (Who can forget Fulmer’s wondrously tactless press conference at the announcement of Currie’s firing, treating a dark moment for the university like a bowl hype press conference. Watch it and try not to wince as he introduces his family, it’s more awkward than someone shot-gunning a beer at a wake.)

Just so Fulmer knows, the running joke around the league is that they expect him to wait until Tennessee clears the difficult portion of its schedule before he coronates himself.

Fulmer, forever attempting to augment the legend of Fulmer, will of course wait until Tennessee gets pummeled by the likes of Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama before naming himself coach.

That sets up best for him to succeed relative to the depths that he’s pushed Tennessee football down to. Around the SEC, they’re already giddy to see him at the press conference.

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"This current overmatched Tennessee staff is a curdling cesspool of Fulmer’s own creation. The final salvo of administrative malfeasance was letting Pruitt hire Jim Chaney from Georgia as offensive coordinator. Tennessee is years behind catching up to rivals like Georgia and Alabama, and attempting to play the same style on offense and eventually surpassing them is about as savvy a strategy as hiring Antonio Brown’s life coach. "

I'd go into UGA with a rotation of QB's planned, lose badly. After Alabama puts us in the mud, I'd only play Pruitt's guys.

Though I think we only have 6 seniors. Couple of JR that stand out, amid bad players.

I'm for Pruitt turning over the roster. I don't think the coach is up to par, but fuck me if Jarrett can't complete a swing pass.

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“I can’t wait for our idiot coach to run off a bunch of unpaid kids who could have gone elsewhere but chose to give blood sweat and tears for my school. I will totally disregard that most of the suck comes from how bad the PE teachers we hired as coaches are”